Kyan Stead hangs around the basketball hoop in the high school gym on March 19. For his senior project, Stead raised funds for the high school's shop program.
Kyan Stead talks a lot about practice.
If there are two things the high school senior excels at, it's basketball and welding, two talents reliant on tedious repetition. And while that may deter some folks, Stead embraces it. For his senior project, he organized a wood and metal art table at the Nolan Center's holiday community market last December.
He sold student projects and other creations students made in shop class. From cutting boards to coat hangers, he sold about $2,000 worth of goods. All proceeds were reinvested into Wrangell's high school shop program, a class that Stead has held close to his heart since he moved to town five years ago.
In addition to selling the art, he also helped refine it. He chipped the slag off the coat hangers after they were plasma cut, cleaned the metal and formed the hangers so they could actually serve their purpose. The hangers were decorated with different designs. Some were crab themed while others resembled killer whales or anchors.
Stead has always had a close relationship with the shop class. He took a woodworking class when he moved to Wrangell in January 2020. Since then, he's been something of a shop rat all four years of high school. So, when teacher Winston Davies approached Stead about the senior project, his answer was a resounding yes.
The emphasis on shop is also something he hopes to pursue after graduation.
"I want to be a pipe welder. I've always liked welding and it's good money. You get to travel too."
He doesn't particularly care where he welds, adding that he knows he could make good money in the Alaska Interior, but he also hopes to start off in Montana, where Stead is from. Already he is achieving that goal as he plans to attend Montana State University Billings and study welding this fall.
"It's not easy to do," he said. "You can weld in lots of different positions. It's just practice practice practice."
He brings the same mindset to the basketball court. A lanky perimeter threat, he was one of the boys high school basketball team's best shooters from three-point range this past season. In a slim defeat to Metlakatla on Dec. 21, he kept Wrangell's hopes alive with seven - yes, seven - three pointers in the first half alone.
He spent last summer refining his shot - inspired by his favorite player, Golden State's Steph Curry - and it clearly paid off.
But Stead also finds inspiration from someone much closer to him than the greatest ever shooter of a basketball: his mother.
"She's a single mom of three," he said. "She works hard. I'm impressed by her. ... It's how I want to be. Work hard. Make money."
When he heads east to Montana, he already has some goals in mind. He hopes to join a men's basketball league to keep playing a sport he's played since he was 3 years old. In the long term, he hopes to keep welding, keep traveling and keep making money.
"A nice house would be nice," he said, "a nice truck - a Ram truck."
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